The French multinational Sodexo, which has been named the preferred operator for a new private women’s prison in Western Australia, was involved in a conglomerate that managed one of Australia’s worst-run prisons in Victoria in the 1990s.
The Metropolitan Women’s Correctional Centre in Melbourne was managed by a consortium of Excor Investments and the Corrections Corporation of Australia, an affiliate of Corrections Corporation of America, for which Sodexo was a majority shareholder until the Bracks government invoked emergency powers under the Corrections Act to take back control of the prison in 2000.
Sodexo, which runs five prisons in the UK and 35 in France, was named the frontrunner for the $25m contract to run the 256-bed women’s remand and reintegration facility in June and is expected to take over management when construction is complete in December.
The prison officers’ union in WA has also expressed concern that the new private operator will be unable to recruit enough staff in time for the new prison to open, leaving the ageing Bandyup women’s prison to cope with severe overcrowding through the summer.
The new prison is intended to ease the pressure on Bandyup, which is so overcrowded that six women slept on mattresses on the floor on Tuesday night, with other women housed three to a cell on trundle beds.
But the Department of Corrective Services maintained Bandyup was only approaching total capacity, which it gave as 404 prisoners, up from a total capacity of 343 prisoners 11 months ago and almost twice the 220 prisoners it was built for. The population, as of Tuesday night, was 396.
The department said trundle beds and mattresses were used to cope with a “surge” in the women’s prison estate.
“Although trundle beds were available, some women chose to sleep on mattresses for a variety of personal reasons including to be with other prisoners for support,” a spokesman told Guardian Australia. “In other cases, the prison has determined that a mattress was more appropriate for safety and operational reasons.”
Both the department and Sodexo declined to comment on Sodexo’s involvement in the Melbourne prison.
The decision by the Bracks government was taken after what a report to parliament by the correctional services commissioner called an “unacceptably high” number of incidents throughout 1999 and 2000, which included a riot, a fire and two occasions where violent prisoners were teargassed. The prison also had high rates of self-harm, and assaults on both prisoners and guards.
The maximum security prison opened in 1996 and was managed by a consortium of Excor Investments and the Corrections Corporation of Australia, an affiliate of Corrections Corporation of America, for which Sodexo was a majority shareholder. It is now operated by the Victorian government as the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
Sodexo divested its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America and picked up a 50% stake in UK Detention Services in 2000.
A spokeswoman for Sodexo Australia said the company could not comment on the previous management of the Metropolitan Women’s Centre but said that in all contracts the company “draws upon its international best practice (as recognised in the UK)”.
“Sodexo acknowledges that the sector does present challenges that are reflective of broader societal circumstances and works actively with the appropriate and connected groups to ensure that the best practice is applied,” she said.
Sodexo said three of its five UK prisons had the highest rating from Her Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons. In 2013, the same inspector discovered that a woman had been kept a “squalid” segregation cell at a Sodexo-run prison for five years.
John Welch, the secretary of the Western Australian Prison Officer’s Union, said any private operator should come under scrutiny.
“The reality is there would probably not be a prison operator in the world that did not have some problems,” he said. “But if privatisation is sold to us as the best-quality outcome then it’s reasonable, when things go wrong in that best-quality outcome, that we point it out.”
WA already has two privately-operated prisons, Acacia, a medium-security men’s prison, and Wandoo reintegration facility for men aged 18-28, both of which are run by Serco. Sodexo has the maintenance contract for Acacia but no other foothold in prisons in Australia.
Welch said he was “extremely sceptical” that the company would have a full complement of trained staff ready to go in December, when the new prison was set to open.
Sodexo is expected to be confirmed as the operator following further negotiations with the state government this month, leaving it five months to recruit staff.
Welch said that was not long enough.
“You’re looking at going into summer with 400, 420 people in Bandyup,” he said. “It is not OK when there are three people in a cell designed for one. It is not OK when there are people on the floor. It is not OK for either the prisoners or the staff. So it is crucial that it be able to open on time.”
